(John Ransom, Headline USA) Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared by proclamation that Emma Weyant, a Florida native who now swims for the University of Virginia, was the winner of a NCAA swimming championship that went to transgender UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas last week.
By allowing men to compete in women’s sports, the NCAA is destroying opportunities for women, making a mockery of its championships, and perpetuating a fraud.
In Florida, we reject these lies and recognize Sarasota’s Emma Weyant as the best women’s swimmer in the 500y freestyle. pic.twitter.com/tBmFxFE3q6
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) March 22, 2022
“Since she is a native Floridian from Sarasota, I, Ron DeSantis, Governor of the State of Florida, do hereby declare in Florida that Emma Weyant is the rightful winner of the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s 500-yard Freestyle,” DeSantis said in the proclamation, according to USA Today.
DeSantis then denounced the rules change the NCAA had adopted in January, specially to accommodate Thomas.
DeSantis said the woke policies were harmfult to women’s sports, and that allowing trans athletes to compete against biological women not only interfered with the integrity of the competition but also threatened to destroy women’s sports altogether.
“The NCAA is basically taking efforts to destroy women’s athletics,” DeSantis said Tuesday at a bill-signing event outside of Tampa, according to Politico. “They’re trying to undermine the integrity of the competition, and they’re crowning somebody else the women’s champion.”
DeSantis has buoyed conservatives by his forthright stance against LGBT activists at the university level and in elementary classrooms.
Under DeSantis’ leadership, Florida Republicans are on the verge of banning LGBT grooming in elementary schools for ages 5 to 8.
The measure that has widespread support amongst Americans, depending on who does the polling and how they ask the questions, according to Fox News.
While a fellow Florida resident, former President Donald Trump, remains the odds-on favorite in preliminary presidential polls, DeSantis has seized centerstage nationally among Republicans on a variety of issues.
Among them are his firm stand against vaccine mandates, forcing the country essentially to reopen; and these latest measures that seek to protect children and women from an increasingly aggressive LGBT lobby.
“He refused to implement mandates and lockdowns,” said noted student-activist Brittany Lakhani about DeSantis in the Sarasota Herald–Tribune.
“He was a national leader in opposing authoritarian policies that we’ve seen fail time and time again,” she continued. “He protected our individual rights, the rights of small businesses and the rights of parents—all while constantly being slammed by the leftist corporate media.”
